It occurs to me that it isn't Voiceprint I didn't care for but rather Dressing For Pleasure — I did notice, however, that one track on the latter sampled the section of Miles Davis' "Sivad" (the part that showed up on Get Up With It as "Honky Tonk"). It hit me that maybe he was drawing the comparison a little too obviously with that...
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Thursday, 12 August 2004 18:27 (nineteen years ago) link
's a Simon Reynolds article about multi-culture v. mono-culture and the types of fusion that Hassell, Eno and Byrne were/are undertaking. Fourth World, ahoy!
― Sam Benson (Sam Benson), Thursday, 12 August 2004 18:48 (nineteen years ago) link
City is transitional, first time he introduces outright drum machine sounds to reference uhm 'the City' but at least the rest of the sounds are still abstract, and it's got some good playing... still...
― (Jon L), Thursday, 12 August 2004 19:33 (nineteen years ago) link
(He has studied Indian classical music though hasn't he?)
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Friday, 13 August 2004 01:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― (Jon L), Friday, 13 August 2004 01:16 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Friday, 13 August 2004 01:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 13 August 2004 01:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Friday, 13 August 2004 01:19 (nineteen years ago) link
I'm thinking about the way he will frequently finish a line he's playing, with a strong sort of feeling of closure, and then there's often (usually?) some sort of echo effect. You get that sort of sound a lot in Arabic singing, or especially Qur'anic recitation, without effects, just as a result of acoustics.
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Friday, 13 August 2004 01:23 (nineteen years ago) link
you kidder.
― (Jon L), Friday, 13 August 2004 01:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Friday, 13 August 2004 01:37 (nineteen years ago) link
Maybe I've had too many whiskey sours this evening, but that's how it sounds to me at this moment.
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 13 August 2004 02:10 (nineteen years ago) link
DJ never back announced the piece, either, I didn't find it again for another year...
― (Jon L), Friday, 13 August 2004 02:34 (nineteen years ago) link
BTW, milton, I think you were talking about "Wing Melodies" which has sequences and triggers both -- and digibells to boot. But I like it.
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 13 August 2004 02:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 13 August 2004 02:48 (nineteen years ago) link
Sometimes the first one, Vernal Equinox is my very favorite, it's so minimal; no harmonizer on the trumpet yet, just occasional subtle Buchla. the concept is already there, intensely technological yet primal music.
I like Earthquake Island though some don't, it's very much in the tradition of other 70's jazz fusion records. The harmonizer shows up for the first time. Great band; Rockist, I fully recommend this record if your complaint of the other records involve stiff rhythms. Liner notes: 'Including Nana (Vasconcelos)' Imaginative Percussion'.
Eno set him off on a path towards fragmented, studio-only creations. The three EG records are progressively less about live performance, by Aka-Darbari-Java, apart from one other drummer who was probably sent home after one or two sessions, it's all Hassell & a sampler. I've got it on now, an incredible record, sound of the mirror.
My problem with Power Spot is that it tries to reintroduce live performances, but the sequencers are still leading, and win out, till the very end... Flash of the Spirit is my other favorite because you can tell they started by recording the live band, and the treatments came later...
― (Jon L), Friday, 13 August 2004 04:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 13 August 2004 12:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dave Segal (Da ve Segal), Saturday, 14 August 2004 01:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Saturday, 14 August 2004 05:16 (nineteen years ago) link
I want to speak in parentheses...
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Saturday, 14 August 2004 05:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Monday, 30 August 2004 10:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS, Friday, 13 May 2005 19:12 (nineteen years ago) link
it sounds like a modern update of The Surgeon of the Nightsky Restores Dead Things By the Power of Sound (which did the same thing to live versions of things from the 1980-1983 fourth world trilogy).
― milton parker (Jon L), Friday, 13 May 2005 19:58 (nineteen years ago) link
No, no, I just saw it announced, without any details.
― RS_LaRue (RSLaRue), Friday, 13 May 2005 21:14 (nineteen years ago) link
great site. no sound samples though.
― milton parker (Jon L), Friday, 13 May 2005 21:36 (nineteen years ago) link
Whaaa??!?
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Saturday, 14 May 2005 05:21 (nineteen years ago) link
ok I bought Maarifa Street last night -- it's great. Fuzzy, liquid, and weird again. All the sharp techno edges and slickness of City & Dressing For Pleasure have been dropped, everything's muted and gauzy and mysterious again, although the tracks are still a lot more straightforward than the original trilogy; the rhythmic backing is less alienating & weird, in support for the lead trumpet, but it fits, it works
co-produced by Peter Freeman, who also played bass & laptop in the original concerts. the rhythms are slow & dubby, especially the bass lines; One track samples a dub filtersweep hit from Pole's CD1 for the downbeat (it's such a generic 'dub' sound that I wouldn't have noticed if not for the liner notes).
the album packaging is incredible, a huge sprawling tree filled with dozens of people. when you look very closely, it dawns on you that it's a sprawling multi-racial orgy. it's by Mati Klarwein, same guy who did Earthquake Island & Bitches Brew.
fits the music perfectly, this is an unusually erotically charged album even for Hassell, feels almost awkward listening to this by myself. it's all about the trumpet playing here, and no one sounds like Hassell, I love this record...
― milton parker (Jon L), Saturday, 14 May 2005 20:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 14 May 2005 20:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dave Segal (Da ve Segal), Saturday, 14 May 2005 22:17 (nineteen years ago) link
I have it -- I just don't think I ever noticed that. That's a fantastic description of the record, btw.
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Sunday, 15 May 2005 01:38 (nineteen years ago) link
I'd forgotten Richard Horowitz was on Surgeon... have you heard Horowitz & Sussan Deihim's Azax Attra : Desert Equations? that is one classic record, definitely related to the fourth world series...
― milton parker (Jon L), Sunday, 15 May 2005 02:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS_LaRue (RSLaRue), Sunday, 15 May 2005 02:18 (nineteen years ago) link
just found this interview online:
RH: I met Paul thanks to Brion Gysin... I had been working on my music in between Paris and Morocco since 1969 when I received my first infusion of magnetic ecstatic blood thunder and I knew I was on to something...
http://www.richardhorowitz.com/press2.shtml
― milton parker (Jon L), Sunday, 15 May 2005 02:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Sunday, 15 May 2005 02:33 (nineteen years ago) link
wow, she sings on Eros as well, RS, let me know if you want to trade (all these things are way out of print)
― milton parker (Jon L), Sunday, 15 May 2005 02:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS_LaRue (RSLaRue), Sunday, 15 May 2005 02:56 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00009LI7U/qid%3D1116131185/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/103-2848508-8628646
― milton parker (Jon L), Sunday, 15 May 2005 03:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS_LaRue (RSLaRue), Monday, 23 May 2005 01:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― xxx, Monday, 23 May 2005 16:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Monday, 23 May 2005 17:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS, Monday, 23 May 2005 18:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Monday, 23 May 2005 18:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― RS, Monday, 23 May 2005 18:16 (nineteen years ago) link
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 23 May 2005 18:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Monday, 11 July 2005 11:24 (eighteen years ago) link
I don't like that tree painting on the package. If it's meant to be celebratory of life energy and sexuality and so forth, for me it just comes across as grotesque (and something about the stylized figures turns me off too). A piece of the 60s better left in that era.
― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Saturday, 6 August 2005 00:13 (eighteen years ago) link
after the first two weeks with Maarifa I just went back through the catalog and listened to the first five albums like crazy... I hear rumors that Dream Theory is getting reissued. hope so.
weird that Eno, Budd and Hassell all have new albums out within months of each other. Budd & Guthrie's Mysterious Skin is particularly good.
― milton parker (Jon L), Saturday, 6 August 2005 04:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 22:50 (seventeen years ago) link
Ronu Majumdar's "Hollow Bamboo" album on the Water Lily label has a real nice guest spot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zeaTh0f0E4
― sleeve, Sunday, 27 June 2021 15:16 (two years ago) link
New York Times w/ details I didn’t know:
Fascinated by electronic music, he made tape collages and won a grant to study with the avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen for two years in Cologne, Germany. His classmates included musicians who would go on to start the German band Can; he took LSD with them
― curmudgeon, Monday, 28 June 2021 15:26 (two years ago) link
I knew he studied with Stockhausen around the same time as Holger Czukay, didn't know about the LSD though!
― Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? (Tom D.), Monday, 28 June 2021 15:42 (two years ago) link
... and David Johnson, who was in the original line-up of Can.
― Are Animated Dads Getting Hotter? (Tom D.), Monday, 28 June 2021 15:44 (two years ago) link
RIP. what a life.
― the mai tai quinn (voodoo chili), Monday, 28 June 2021 15:47 (two years ago) link
84 is pretty good. But given that he was creating music at such a high level, it’s hard not to feel a little sadder about this. His last few records betrayed no signs of slowing down whatsoever – in retrospect, I find it remarkable that his music sounded every bit as exotic, brooding and other to the very end. RIP to one of the greats.
― Naive Teen Idol, Tuesday, 29 June 2021 13:21 (two years ago) link
Have we ever polled his albums? I only get this topic when using the search.
― things repeat forever and there never is a remedy (Austin), Wednesday, 30 June 2021 17:35 (two years ago) link
The Surgeon of the Nightsky Restores Dead Things by the Power of Sound----
not seeing this one on Spotify. Author/critic Jon Savage says it's a fave of his
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 1 July 2021 17:10 (two years ago) link
It's wonderful. Listen to it a lot.
― things repeat forever and there never is a remedy (Austin), Friday, 2 July 2021 02:04 (two years ago) link
Nice tribute mix from Low Light: https://www.mixcloud.com/lowlight/last-night-the-moon-came-a-tribute-to-john-hassell/
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Friday, 2 July 2021 06:58 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGFJhExa4Qc
― Milton Parker, Friday, 2 July 2021 08:22 (two years ago) link
Chaser:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbcuISx7vDk
― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 4 July 2021 20:21 (two years ago) link
I miss this guy already
― sleeve, Sunday, 4 July 2021 20:28 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0sjEnihSdI
"caracas night september 11, 1975"
― ミ💙🅟 🅛 🅤 🅡 🅜 🅑💙彡 (Austin), Sunday, 11 September 2022 17:25 (one year ago) link
Highly recommended tribute: https://astralindustries.bandcamp.com/album/ai-32-the-fifth-world-recordings
― Pataphysician, Friday, 13 January 2023 15:05 (one year ago) link
Some live stuff coming out — sounds pretty pretty good ...
https://jonhassell.bandcamp.com/
― tylerw, Thursday, 19 January 2023 20:56 (one year ago) link
just reading up on some of his credits, turns out he played on a pair of duncan sheik tracks? sounds like a bad david sylvian song hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISt0LotIIEo
― diamonddave85 (diamonddave85), Thursday, 19 January 2023 23:04 (one year ago) link
the link between bad 90s radio rock and new weird america that ilm needed today
― ꙮ (map), Thursday, 19 January 2023 23:07 (one year ago) link
Some live stuff coming out — sounds pretty pretty good ... https://jonhassell.bandcamp.com🕸/
― bamboohouses, Tuesday, 24 January 2023 17:59 (one year ago) link
Just now relistening to Brilliant Trees for the first time in a while and his tone when he first appears is unmistakable.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 24 January 2023 18:04 (one year ago) link
aahhhh xpost that's too bad re:forthcoming live stuff. that material *is* worth revisiting. this is the cd edition i picked up years ago and it's p spiff.
also yes ned! love him so much on that material. words with the shaman probably already mentioned as such, but i am officially stating my vote for "classic hassell" across the board for all of the sylvian collabs. stating the obvious perhaps, but it's nice to be right for once!
― "i'm grateful." (Austin), Tuesday, 24 January 2023 18:15 (one year ago) link
sounds like a bad david sylvian song
funny because one of the few things I know about duncan shiek is that he's a big sylvian fan and stated in interviews after Barely Breathing became a huge hit that he was surprised to get any commercial success as he thought of himself as a Sylvian type.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Tuesday, 24 January 2023 23:38 (one year ago) link
Never understood why Alfred had such a bad reaction to Brilliant Trees. Hassell’s work there (and on Words w the Shaman which was stapled to my CD edition) is so, so good. Even though I love that he went out on top, I miss this guy.
― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 25 January 2023 13:00 (one year ago) link
duncan shiek is that he's a big sylvian fan
yeah i definitely got that sense after listening to the two tracks with hassell and almost made me want to check out some of his other stuff to see if he had some good sylvian-inspired deep cuts
― diamonddave85 (diamonddave85), Wednesday, 25 January 2023 15:50 (one year ago) link
aka/dabari/java >>>>>>
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 10 May 2023 21:09 (one year ago) link
decided to listen through the whole catalog and spend time with some of his records i've only glancingly heard and wow what a knockout
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 10 May 2023 21:10 (one year ago) link
That one is killer. A discography listen sounds just the thing. Lately, I've been listening to *Last Night the Moon* and goddamn.
― Stars of the Lidl (Chinaski), Wednesday, 10 May 2023 21:15 (one year ago) link
agreed, so great, very subtle/minimal
― Perverted By Linguiça (sleeve), Wednesday, 10 May 2023 22:26 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2CO0kFhjwE
i'm glad the living city was given its own release. i don't know that i would've ever heard it otherwise and it's one of the very best hassell things
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Sunday, 14 May 2023 18:00 (one year ago) link
First heard Hassell w/his track Amsterdam Blue (Cortege) on the soundtrack for the The Million Dollar Hotel. I don't think it appeared anywhere else.
― omar little, Sunday, 14 May 2023 18:05 (one year ago) link
he was a genius, such a rich catalog.
Hadn't heard *The Living City* before. Some deep weirdness going on in there. The bassline on the opening track is like having a fly in a tooth cavity.
― Stars of the Lidl (Chinaski), Sunday, 14 May 2023 20:12 (one year ago) link